By HG Tejiyas Das ACBSP
The social, emotional environment is generally nasty. Children are bullied at an early age, and many of them are also physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. It’s hard to find a safe-place and even more difficult to find a safe-person whom we can be open with and in whom we can place our trust. For beginners in devotional service, like me, the devotional creeper is tender and easily damaged or even killed.
Of course, the bhakti-lata-bija cannot be killed, as it will, at the very least, sprout again in the next life. Srila Rupa Gosvami outlines the six aspects of devotional relationships, and heart of which is to enable others to reveal their hearts with trust and without fear. Trust can take a lifetime to gain, but only a moment to destroy. Trust is the foundation of spiritual life and it blooms in the shape of sraddha or faith. Every step we take towards Krishna, our progress in devotional service, rests on faith. The more one has faith the more one is inclined to dive into the association of devotees who, true to their nature, engage in exuberantly hearing and chanting the glories of Govinda. Such devotees progressive faith, association, and devotional service washes away the ignorance painted on us by Maya, and liberates our dormant desire to strive to love Krishna. In that state of mind the unfortunate tendencies we carry to enjoy material nature are slowly taken away and given up. Then the higher taste of pure, unalloyed, unconditional service begins to fully mature.
As a sadhaka continues to develop their bhakti-lata, devotional creeper, the subsequent manifestations and activities serve to reinforce the proceeding ones. For instance, as we attune ourselves to properly avail of Vaishnava association we will find our faith maturing, become deeper and more solid. This deepened faith combined with association leads us to deeper aspects of devotional practices in which we develop a heighten experience of the nectar of devotion. This in turn propels our faith in Krishna consciousness and association and gradually is seen maturing in detachment. We can liken it to the growth of a plant. The stem at first is very soft and easily damaged or cut. But as the plant matures it develops successive layers, but the thin lifeline of the plant, that connects the plant to the roots, still remains alive within.
Sri Govinda in His Bhagavad-gita describes the result of proper association with devotees – that they become more and more eager to describe and hear His glories. The more they hear, the more they feel spiritual pleasure, the more they want to hear.
I once heard Srila Prabhupada comparing this tendency of fault-finding to flies attracted to sores. He elaborated on this, using the Hindi word ‘cidranusana,’ which figuratively means ‘looking for the spot’. Lifting his chin with his gaze shifting slightly to my left, Srila Prabhupada said: “Cidranusana, you take a new white sheet and hang it and then take a needle and poke and poke holes, then point and say, ‘See, it is imperfect.’ It is very easy to find fault. In this way you [meaning the plural you] can fault even in me.”
A sweet event comes to mind. An American couple were sitting before Srila Prabhupada, myself to the side watching intently – trying to imbibe every morsel of the event. The couple were noticeable in that, being India their devotional clothes were fresh, clean, and meticulously pressed, and their foreheads were adorned with perfectly shaped tilak. Our charming Srila Prabhupada, who is the perfection of renunciation, pleasantly praised the girl – telling the husband how she looked so beautiful in her saree. The conversation gradually wound its way to the couple describing their difficulties in following the regulations and chanting sixteen rounds. On that cue, Prabhupada nodded at his assistant standing nearby to bring out a document and said, “I want to read you a letter from one boy.” The servant narrated the text, the boy describing how for some time he lived in the Laguna temple, but struggled with his addiction to marijuana and, succumbing to this lust, left to indulge in it. Then, on the urging of the local devotees, and his feeling separation from temple life, he returned, only to again succumb and leave.
It was truly a pitiful tale, of gathering strength, becoming overwhelmed with desire, and regretfully leaving the association of devotees – again and again and again. The letter ended with the writer asking Srila Prabhupada for guidance and blessings.
Invoking his ‘ultra-pause’ technique, Srila Prabhupada, with the utmost of softness and compassion, sat glancing at these two young devotees who were silent and gently shaking their heads in disbelief. I pondered the situation. Almost everyone would have been inclined to think how hopeless and pitiful was the writer. But not our Srila Prabhupada, whose lovely voice resonated in eight expertly crafted words: “Just see how he is struggling for Krishna.”